Got any change?

Let me start this post by informing my far right-wing radical western readers (most of you) that this blog in no way endorses the Obama Biden ticket. But when you're as poor as we north Floridians are, after eight long years of Republican policies tearing apart both the financial stability and spirit of this once flourishing nation, you have to find cheap entertainment. So today we went downtown and listened to some dude in the park ask for change (which is common in downtown Jacksonville). In truth, it was Becky who was dying to go. Apparently, she's a socialist, bleeding-heart liberal. Just joking, of course. But we did go down to see Obama speak, just for the heck of it. It was entertaining to say the least, and loads of people turned out. Even the Republicans flew in with their banners stating "Florida is McCain-Palin Country." Anything that annoys all of the whining Democrats is pretty funny. It ended up taking longer than we had hoped, but since it is going to be a pretty big election, historically speaking, it was cool to see a part of it.

Paul enjoyed the speech, but he's not a big supporter of Obama's health care plan. I think he's a Ralph Nader fan, actually. And he's also not a big fan of when really big flags attack. As you can see, he almost pulled me down trying to escape.

After that, Becky dragged me to see a bunch of old guys in strange hats put on a circus. It was surprisingly entertaining, though Paul was pieved that they didn't have any elephants. But he did get all sorts of excited about the flying trapeze people (but I think he was hoping they would fall... he's sick in that way), and he ate some popcorn and a snowcone, which is always good. I enjoyed the guy who juggled his kids with his feet the most, so when we got home Paul and I started practicing, or at least until I failed to catch him the first time. Someday maybe we can be in the circus... or at least we can dream.

Yes, I love cars...

Lately, free time has been very hard to find around here. So when I do get a few minutes, I prefer to spend them doing something that doesn't anger me. Yesterday, we had the joy of spending our entire, beautiful Saturday at the Chevrolet Dealership. In the last month, I have replaced all four turn signals on our car, and yesterday, two of them were out again. On top of that, the passenger side floor of the car was soaked with coolant, so I figured something was up. I got to the car dealership at 9AM, made an appointment for 1PM, got back early to the appointment, and then sat in the waiting room for FOUR HOURS with a child who must have consumed 17 pounds of sugar. What did the dealership do? Pretty much nothing, except charge me $100 to tell me I had a leak in the A/C unit that needed to be resealed. Thanks, I didn't know that. But after wasting my whole day while they took their sweet time opening it up to see where the leak was, they decided they didn't even have time to reseal it. So I'd have to come back and waste another entire day of my life for them to charge me another $300 to fix it. Hooray!

Anyway, we had planned on taking pictures in St. Augustine, but by the time we finally got there, we ran out of light. So Paul and I just sat on a park bench, Forrest Gump style, and thought about going back to the dealership and driving the car through the front door of the service station.

Of course, you couldn't tell how angry I actually was by this smiling picture of me. As much as I love having a day off, I'm glad that one is over. Hopefully next weekend will be better. But the car is still leaking, and one of the turn signals is out again. Wonderful.

Paul could really use a drink...

Bubbles bubbles everywhere!! Ah, September is rolling along and yet here it is in Florida still hanging around the upper 80's temperature wise. Air conditioning is essential to life in this part of the world. But Paul found a new way to cool off the other day, and a great way to quench his thirst. Enter: the garden hose. We went to the park to blow bubbles and happened upon this garden hose lying unattended. Being the nice parents that we are, we thought we'd spray Paul, take pictures, and then laugh at his expense. Someday maybe he'll pay us back... oh wait, he does that at 2AM when he doesn't feel like sleeping. But don't worry, he had fun with the hose, but the fourth picture is priceless. I think he may have gotten some water up the nasal cavity... just maybe.

This is an interesting device, what do you suppose it's used for?

Well, the best way to find out is by trying to eat it...

Aaah! Blabble gah dabble blah...

Alright, not cool... really... not cool.

A Child in Need

As you know, the 2008 hurricane season has brought endless devastation to innocent victims in the southeast. Somewhere, right now, a child sits alone in a broken home, his life torn apart by the fierce winds and intense rains that have fallen on the eastern shoreline. Your donations can open up the clouds above and let in the brilliant sun, helping to bring this child a brighter tomorrow. Just $1.00 a month can ensure that he has a new Elmo sing-a-long book, a twenty-third pair of pajamas, or the fourth balloon this week. A child’s heart is full of endless love, and you can be the recipient of the world’s most pure form of gratitude, with just a small contribution.

Ok, not really. In fact, Paul has yet to even get his toes wet from these storms. The so-called Hurricane Hanna was supposed to hit us the other day, but it barely even rained. I removed our apartment door so we’d have something to float on, but that was a waste of time. We will see if this whole Ike thing pans out.

Rainy Day at the Park

Paul and his mother decided that yesterday was a great day to head out to the park. But of course, as soon as they got there, the rain started to fall. As you can see, this made Paul very angry.

They say it's dangerous when you let the animal out of the cage, and this we discovered last night at Walmart, as the animal tore up and down the aisles throwing bottles of ketchup and barbecue sauce from the shelves. He's got pretty quick feet on him now, which makes a trip to the store ever more entertaining.

But he does love the park. The swings, the slides, catching the football with his forehead when thrown by his mother. Thankfully his head his very solid, because when we're not bouncing objects off of it, he definately loves trying to ram down walls at high rates of speed.

Orlando Outlet Extravaganza!

Yesterday we hit up the last (or hopefully the last) outlet stores within two hundred miles from here. So I guess next time we'll have to travel to Miami to find even better deals. Hooray for me. But we did stop in downtown Orlando this time, which was cool to see, except for the continuous rain. It would stop for a while, and then start, and then stop again. Paul of course, was quite fond of the puddles left behind, as he would run through, turn around, and splash back. We spent quite a while at Lake Eola Park in the downtown area.

The lake was full of these pretty incredible swans among a variety of other birds, and they even had giant swan shaped boats. Unfortunately, the rain closed up the boat rides, or you would probably see a picture of me paddling out into the water looking like a chump in a big bird boat. Paul liked the long necked fellows, but once they figured out he didn't come bringing bread or other edible goods, they impolitely snubbed him and went about their business. Stupid birds.

After that, Paul took his first shot at breaking and entering. He exclaimed, "No trespassing, eh? Do you know who I am? Get my lawyer on the phone!" Of course, this sort of behavior always results in Paul's mother shooting him the evil eye that only a mother could produce. Too bad he'll never learn to listen to his mother... or at least I never did.

As always, we had a good time, and we did our fair share of shopping and sight seeing in Florida's biggest tourist trap. Other than the rain, it was a great day. And to top it off, after dinner at the beach, Paul got to roll around in the sand for a while. There's nothing like waking up in the middle of the night with sand in the diaper to make a boy scream at his parents.

It was the weekend...

But now it's over. And since I didn't make a post, I'd better do that now. Not much to post about, yesterday was my birthday, which was so exciting. We did some shopping, as we do most every weekend. But this weekend Old Navy was offering $12 jeans, so we just could not miss it. And that, on top of the fact that most people had been bottled up in their homes the past few days due to the storm, made a wonderful shopping experience. After we had our fill of Old Navy, we went to a birthday party for my boss's daughter, and surprisingly enough, they not only bought a cake with my name on it, the whole room of people I'd just met sang happy birthday to me! So it was a good time, and Paul turned into Paulnon the Barbarian when he got the pinata stick. He was all about slaughtering the candy-stuffed paper donkey with his frilly rainbow colored sword. He didn't want the candy, he just wanted to slaughter something. Unfortunately, we didn't have our camera, or you'd get to see the maniacal facial expressions he made while bludgeoning the helpless animal.

Today was a little less exciting though, we just went downtown and walked across the bridge to the landing (aka the over-rated downtown mall, for those of you who have yet to visit Jacksonville) and took some pictures. Yes, the picture above is the bridge we walked over. It was interesting to see some of the flooding that occurred due to the storm. One walkway we frequently travel was entirely under water, probably five feet deep.

And then Paul found this yellow pole, which amused him for quite some time. I had to take this picture because just before this, Becky decided to stand in a pile of red ants. She then she opted to run around the parking lot in an arm-flailing frenzy, screaming, "My legs are on fire!"

And that was the excitement of the day. So in recap: my birthday was successful and I am now a year older, which makes me roughly half the age of the average reader of this blog (aka, all you old people), Paul enjoys simple things like yellow poles, garbage cans, and the occasional wooden fence to look through, and Becky learned that it's not a good idea to stand on the home of a million biting ants while taking photographs.